There are many different electrical generators that have been developed through many years. Many rely upon the burning of fossil fuels (gasoline and diesel, in particular) to create heat that eventually transfers into mechanical energy (through various engine types, such as internal combustion and Stirling engines). Such fossil fuel combustion electrical generators (as well as waste oil burning types), however, create problems with nitrogen oxide (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions and thus require caution and possible extra filter technologies to protect the user and the environment from such toxic releases (particularly due to the high temperatures required to incinerate liquid fuels that, in the presence of air, create such undesirable byproducts). As well, the specific types of fuel needed for such a device to function are usually limited and expensive due to necessary fuel refinements for such a purpose. Although the resultant kilowatt generation from such a device may be acceptable for short term purposes (power outages, for instance), such a device is highly undesirable in terms of providing electricity to a grid or for sustained periods of time, unfortunately.
Likewise, other past generators have relied upon internal combustion engines that exhibit bulky and/or extremely heavy configurations and require usage in a specific location. Though effective in such configurations, these engines are actually rather elaborate and/or highly inefficient for such a purpose and must use highly refined and expensive fuels to operate. Unfortunately, to operate these engines in the production of electricity has created myriad problems in such that the fuel needed has been ignited in an explosion within the piston cylinder that instantaneously combusts the subject fuel to the point of generating a high temperature but too quickly to properly and completely incinerate the fuel themselves, thus leading to the unwanted creation of NOx and SO2 emissions. In other words, the prior designs for such electrical generating devices at this size and output have been limited in their fuel types (not to mention the proper balance of combustion and exhaust collection) to make it worthwhile for the user to provide a cost-effective electrical generator. As well, as alluded to above, the continued safety issues with fuel combustion exhaust issues renders such prior devices highly questionable in terms of availability at any desired location for actual long term use, particularly without the added expense of emission control components.
In a separate consideration, there exist particularly effective heat regenerative steam engines in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,080,512, 7,856,822, and 7,992,386 (as examples), all to Schoell, that are configured specifically to be incorporated and introduced within a system wherein the source of water vaporization is waste heat from a manufacturing process. Such systems thus capture heat that typically is unusable and couples such a source with a working fluid that becomes steam (or a like vapor) in order to generate electricity through a modified multi-piston engine. No discussion is made of the potential for incorporating such a specific, effective steam engine with any other type of heat source, and no provision is made for the necessary components required to possibly utilize such a device with any type of heat source other than those specified as exhaust types from large-scale reactors. As such, although such a specific heat regenerative engine is effective in conjunction with certain waste heat sources, the investigation into any viability with any other types of sources, let alone separate engines incorporated directly into such a heat regenerative type apparatus, has not been explored, particularly in terms of a small-scale device, regardless of overall end result in terms of kilowatt generation.
There thus exists a definite need to provide a cost-efficient, effective, environmentally friendly, electrical generator utilizing low square footage genset technology. To date, unfortunately, the shortcomings of the prior devices delineated above leave a gaping omission in the types of generators available to such a degree within the electrical generator industry. This invention overcomes and provides, in a narrow scope, a device that meets all of those goals and with a capability to generate a high amount of kilowatts for introduction within an electrical grid and/or to power lights, equipment, and the like, directly.
Additionally, there has been a noticeable lack of improvements in the heat exchanger industry for implementation with a steam or combustion engine. Past developments have included standard coiled structures that are subjected to heat sources in order to convert, for steam engines, at least, working fluids to vapor and thus transfer of the same to an engine for mechanical motion purposes. The concentration on engine improvements has not yielded any significant modifications for typical heat exchangers of the past, unfortunately. Although most devices of this type are enclosed systems (to reduce loss of heat, at least), the typical configurations employed for such processes allow for direct heat exposure to the target coils without any noticeable variations in temperature. A system that compensates not only for problems that may exist with coil devices that permit instant heating, rather than gradual, and/or further takes into account the potential for coil insulation due to ash and other carbon byproducts from fuel and gas combustion therein, would be quite attractive to the combustion engine, industry, at least. To date, however, and as noted above, such improvements have not been provided.